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Small pattering noises could be heard on the cold metal floors of SaFeL’s dorm halls as Boggles barefootedly snuck her way through, being careful not to wake anyone who might be sleeping (which was unlikely due to the fact that multiple of her coworkers didn't sleep, but she would still like to avoid waking any other SaFeL employees and in turn avoid being berated if she could.) Her plan was to go down to the mess hall and snatch a few snacks. Having to constantly heal oneself requires a lot of energy, right?
As she passed by Matador’s room, she significantly slowed her steps so as to be sure she wouldn't disturb them. She usually acted playful and sometimes even mean towards them, but she still understood that they were higher up in SaFeL’s ranking than she was. If she was caught sneaking around at night by them, it could result in a nasty slap on the wrist or even a few spools getting docked from her pay; neither of which she was very eager to get. She prudently walked by their room, but stopped in her tracks as she heard a noise coming from nearby in the otherwise completely silent hallway.
Did a rat somehow find itself in the halls? No, it sounds almost like… crying? She focused all of her attention on her surroundings to try and figure out where the noise was coming from as it didn't seem to be moving around. After meticulous listening, she pin-pointed that the noise was coming from Mari-Anna’s room, the room right next to Matador's room. Boggles felt her heart drop as she came to this realization.
She felt as if she should keep walking and avoid any sort of conflict or interaction at all costs right now, but something in her wouldn't let her. She tried her best not to care about the other HEPs, but it was sometimes difficult to do so. With her other coworkers, she often found it difficult to fully connect with them as she would for her family and friends back at the circus, and she wanted it to stay that way. As much as she enjoyed joking around with Diablo and pulling stupid pranks on Garbo, they were both robots; they functioned and behaved much differently than her, which in turn made it hard for her to relate to them much. The Matador, on the other hand, was a human just like her; what made it so hard to completely connect with them was that they didn't completely feel human. They didn't eat, drink, or sleep just like she did. What she found the most off-putting about them was their willingness to take the lives of living beings, even other humans like their own. As much as she acted like everything was fine, that part deeply disturbed her. What if that was her family one day? What if the Matador's burning hands would one day hold the bloodied remains of those closest to her? She tried not to think about it that much, but she could never bring herself to fully be comfortable around Matador. She never was able to be completely comfortable and open with her coworkers, but she saw that as a positive. Her biggest priority was keeping her family safe, not to make friends here, as she would often remind herself.
Boggles carefully took a few steps forward and stood still in front of Mari’s door as she debated with herself on whether she should walk away or not. Part of Boggles wanted to complete her small mission and forget this ever happened, but a much larger and louder part of her wanted to see if she could help Mari, even if only a tiny bit. She knew that Mari has had it rough ever since she was taken here. Even if she wouldn't always show it, she was empathetic towards those who've been unjustly wronged. Taking a sharp breath inwards, she lightly tapped her knuckles to the door.
There was no verbal response, but she heard the quiet sobs abruptly stop. Boggles stood still at the door, debating now on whether she should continue waiting or walk away like she considered doing before. Before she could come to a consensus, the doorknob in front of her began to possess a faint red aura as it turned, leaving the door ajar.
Being careful to make as little noise as possible, Boggles opened the door and walked over to Mari’s bedside. She felt a chill make its course through her body as the significantly lower temperature of the room, compared to the rest of the building, made itself known. The alien was surrounded by all sorts of machines, each one being filled with weird-looking fluids. The bed was made out of a sleek metal, accompanied by a small pillow and blanket; it hardly looked comfortable at all, and Boggles questioned if Mari regularly thought the same thing as she slept on it each night. There seemed to be some sort of absorbent padding on the pillow, blanket, and metal “mattress” (if you could call it that,) which Boggles assumed was to absorb the goo that Mari was constantly excreting. Above the bed was a window that was wide open, which allowed a cool but smoky breeze to come in from outside. Except for the small wooden table beside the bed, there seemed to be no decoration or additional furniture at all; the weird machines were the only sort of personality that the room had. The room resembled almost a hospital room, even (albeit a very bland one.) Boggles was used to seeing rooms like that as she grew up being experimented on and staying in all sorts of odd–and often bleak–places due to her healing abilities. Mari’s head was tilted upwards as she longingly gazed into the smoky, slightly red night sky outside of the window, not turning her head even just a little bit to look at Boggles as if she didn't want the clown to see her face.
“Mari? Ya’ doing alright?” Boggles hesitantly asked. Upon hearing this, Mari tilted her head downwards and tensed her arms. From the edges of Mari's eyewear, Boggles could see some liquid (presumably water, but then again with Mari, she never knew) leaking from them. “...It hurts so badly.” Mari's voice, muffled from the face-wear, was barely above a whisper. She looked back up at the sky. “I would do anything to be done with this company, to go back home and never have to think about it ever again.” Boggles sat down beside Mari and put a hand on her shoulder, and the alien turned her head to look at her. “These machines, missions, experiments… They're taking the life out of me, Boggles.”
“These machines, huh.” Boggles asked while motioning towards a machine that seemed to be pumping some sort of green liquid, and Mari solemnly nodded in response. “They're drilling into my head… I'm nothing but livestock to those at the top of this dreadful company.” She wrapped her tentacle “hand” around her own shoulder and looked down at her lap. “I'm in so much pain and it-” She choked out a sob. “It never seems to cease.”
Boggles wrapped her partially-bandaged arm around Mari, and the alien slowly lifted her head to look at the clown. “I'll tell ya’ what, how about we get you one of those ice baths that you like. To ya’ know, ease the pain.” Mari slowly nodded. “I would like that.”
The two stood up and walked in silence towards the bathroom while Boggles’ arm was wrapped around Mari's shaking shoulders. As they reached the bathroom, Boggles flicked the light on and sat Mari on the edge of the bathtub. Reaching down into the tub, the clown plugged the drain and turned the cold water on, being careful to not make it too noisy. “Ya’ can wait here while I find some ice.” Mari silently nodded as Boggles left the room, leaving the bathroom door slightly ajar.
Mari was sitting in a cold, silent room just as she was before, but she now felt this sort of confusion that she didn't have beforehand. She usually enjoyed Boggles presence, even if sometimes it involved cold banana-cream pies being thrown directly at her face, but she just couldn't wrap her head around why Boggles would go out of her way to comfort her like this. Mari had suspicions about pretty much everyone working at SaFeL; something was secretly very wrong, she could just feel it. Boggles however, felt transparent and open in a way that the others didn't feel like. Mari had a hard time envisioning that she was untrustworthy. Boggles genuinely wanted to help her, but why? Whatever the case may be, she was thankful that she wasn't alone and quietly crying in her pillow for the entire night as she often found herself doing. Meanwhile, Boggles had to find a balance between silence and speed as she speed walked to the mess hall for some ice.
“I hope we have some left…” Boggles muttered as she grasped the freezer door handle. Just as she was about to open the door, she felt a cold, metal hand tapping her shoulder. No, not hand, it was a hoof, she concluded as she turned around and saw Diablo right behind her. Diablo signed, ‘What are you doing here right now? Don't you humans need sleep?’ His expressions were gentle and unassuming as he questioned her, but Boggles couldn't help to feel a tiny bit ashamed for being caught in the kitchen this late, even if she had reasons that she deemed good. Well, it could've been worse she thought, as Matador could’ve been the one standing behind her instead of Diablo.
“Mari isn't doing so well, I thought I'd outta help her out,” she replied as put her hands to her hips and leaned against the freezer door, her red curls compressing against the hard metal. Boggles paused for a moment before sighing. “I remember very well what it's like to have nobody there for ya’ when you're bawlin’ your eyes out and wishing ya’ were anywhere but here. I can see my younger self in her as I was in that lab, wanting any sort o’ escape.” The clown slid down the door and sat on the kitchen floor with her elbows resting on her knees.
Diablo squatted down to her level and put a hand on her shoulder before signing back, ‘When I first came to this SaFeL, I despised each and every human for their cruel actions and nature. You've shown me that I was wrong, and there really are some good people out here, despite how cruel so many of you are. You're a good person, Boggs.’ Boggles stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before snorting with a laugh. “That was so corny, dude.”
Diablo immediately stood up and crossed his arms, looking away with a huff. ‘Have a good night, Boggles,’ he signed as he exited the room, going God knows where. Boggles glared at him before getting up from the floor to continue her mission. With one hand wiping floor-crumbs off from the back of her sweatpants, she used the other hand to pull the door open (which took much more strength than she could've imagined due to the old age and bad quality of this specific freezer.) Fortunately for her, the freezer was almost completely full with large bags of ice cubes. She took as many as she could possibly carry in her hands before making it back to the bathroom, picking up the pace as she went due to the cold temperatures hurting her skin from the multitude of ice cubes, but also due to the fact that she didn't want to leave Mari alone for much longer than she already had. Kicking the door open, she announced “I'm back, Mars. Ya’ ready?” Mari silently nodded as Boggles didn't hesitate to begin pouring the ice cubes into the bath. Mari watched Boggles with this distant look in her eyes.
Eventually as the bath was almost full, Mari began to pull her blue hospital-like gown over her head, but stopped midway and winced. “Ya’ sure ya’ can easily do that, with the pain n’ all? Let me help.” Mari nodded, and Boggles put her hands on the sides of the gown and finished pulling it off from above her head. Mari, who was still sitting on the edge of the iron bathtub, began taking her hexad of tentacles out of the metal braces that SaFeL required her to wear to make her tentacles appear as legs. Boggles noticed this, and swiftly put her hands on the calf of one of the braces. Mari nodded once more in approval, and Boggles got to work to remove it. Eventually the two finished getting the leg braces off, as well as various braces around her torso that also served to make her look more human, and Mari was able to sigh from relief as their removal alleviated her pain partially. With her squid-like tentacles resting on the ground and the edge of the bathtub, Mari sat still while looking down into her lap with an air of aloofness.
Boggles noticed this, and wrapped one of her hands onto one end of one of the alien's tentacles. “Are ya’ alright? You're more quiet than usual,” Boggles questioned with a whisper as she moved her own face only a few inches away from Mari’s. Mari looked up, but not enough to make eye contact, as if she couldn't make herself do it even if she really wanted to. “...I'm sorry,” was all that Mari could get out. She looked almost as if she was on the verge of tears. Boggles immediately put both of her hands onto two of her tentacles and grasped tightly. “Hey, hey, sorry for what?” Tears began to stream from Mari's eyewear.
“Why- why do you go through the effort of doing this for me? You-” Mari choked out a sob. “You're sacrificing your time and energy to aid my sorrows. These pains are my burden to manage, not yours.” Boggles cupped the sides of Mari's tear-covered face. “I…” Boggles paused. “I guess that I see myself in ya’. Feeling trapped, wantin’ nothing more than to be done with this company, this place.” She wiped Mari's tears to the side with her thumbs. “You’re constantly fighting for ya’ life here, yet ya’ make an effort to be kind, to treat me like a person, and not like your own personal punching bag like everyone else here does. Hell, you're one of the only other people I know here that even sleeps like I do. Ya’ aren't even human, and yet ya’ feel the most human outta anyone here.” Boggles let go of Mari's face and pulled her into a hug, digging her head into the crook of Mari's neck. Mari returned the gesture and wrapped her tentacles around Boggles tightly. “I guess that you make me feel less alone here, ya’ know? I want to be there for you because I don't even know if I'd still be sane without ya’.” Boggles sighed and wiped a small tear that was pricking at the edge of her own eye before pulling back from Mari and placing her hands on the alien's upper tentacles. “Let's get ya’ in the bath now, ‘kay?” Mari looked a bit disappointed to see that their hug was so short-lived, but she nodded nonetheless.
Boggles clutched Mari as if she were cradling her and submerged her into the bath, being very careful not to let her slip from her arms. As Boggles set her down and was preparing to stand up, Mari promptly wrapped a tentacle around her arm. “Please don't leave me.” Mari paused. “I don't want to be alone. Can you…” The alien hesitated, and Boggles stared at her with a confused look, but also a look that told her to go on. “Can you come in here with me? If you're content with it, as I don't want you to feel pressur-” Mari couldn't fit in another word as she watched Boggles readily strip her clothes off and submerge herself in the bathtub alongside Mari.
Mari couldn't help but stare in shock as Boggles was right alongside her, completely bare and clearly shivering but seemingly content with it. Mari wasn't sure if she was more touched by the fact that Boggles was willing to endure freezing cold temperatures for her, or that she wasn't hesitant to let the alien see the most intimate form of herself. “Thank you” Mari whispered under her breath and into Boggles’ ear, as she struggled to get any other words to leave her mouth. Boggles cupped the sides of Mari's face once more and gave her a shaky peck on the forehead. “I’ll be with ya’ for as long as ya’ need me to.” Boggles pulled Mari into a hug once again and began to softly stroke her head, and Mari instantly returned the gesture by wrapping her tentacles around Boggles' body and burying her head into her upper chest. Maybe being at SaFeL didn't have to be so unbearable.